Knowledge Center

Women in Financial Services

Quick Take

A Note about Women in "Financial Services"

There is no one single number to answer the question "How many women are in financial services?" because there is no single official definition of "financial services." Instead, we must look at different occupations that fall within the field of financial services.

Statistics for Various Financial Services Related Occupations

According to the 2013 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Executive Officers and Top Earners, which counts the number of women in upper management in Fortune 500 companies, women are 17.6% of executive officers in the finance and insurance industries.1

In 2012, women were 23.1% of all senior officers in the finance and insurance industries inFinancial Post 500 companies.2

In addition, women are 17.9% of board directors in the finance and insurance industries inFortune 500 companies.3

Similarly, in Financial Post 500 companies, women were 22.3% of all board directors in the finance and insurance industries in 2013.4

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission collects information from private employers with 100 or more employees or federal contractors with 50 more employees. According to the EEOC, in 2013:

Women made up 40% of all employees and 18.2% of executive/senior-level officials and managers at the 1,284 companies that fall into the category "Securities, Commodity Contracts and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities." 6

Women made up 35.4% of all employees and 16.1% of executive/senior-level officials and managers at the 208 companies that fall into the category "Investment Banking and Securities Dealing" (which is a subcategory of "Securities, Commodity Contracts & Other Financial Investments"). 7

Women made up 57.6% of all employees and 30.9% of executive/senior-level officials and managers at the 4,133 companies that fall into the category "Commercial Banking." 8

Women made up 52.5% of all employees and 30.7% of executive/senior-level officials and managers at the 1,190 companies that fall into the category "Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services"9

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics10, in 2013, women made up the following percentages of these occupations:

Financial Managers

55.3%

Accountants and Auditors

62.1%

Financial Analysts

32.6%

Personal Financial Advisors

25.7%

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics11, in 2013, women made up the following percentages of these industries: (note, these do not factor position level)

1 Reader Comment

Peter Brownsays:

7/13/2015 11:13:50

Hi ,

Thank you for the statistics, it remains sober reading. We still have some ways to go before there is parity, or within margin of error, in this matter.

Some more interesting results have been released, in case you're interested in adding it to the list. A recently released PwC article highlights some of the issues women face in breaking into the financial services industry, the basic finding is while involving diverse groups improves business performance - so irrespective of an ethical case there is a business one - many women for instance, still find themselves sidelined with 60% saying financial services firms are not doing enough to encourage diversity.

If you're interested, there's a rundown of the results : http://goo.gl/btPY1c and the PwC article : http://goo.gl/XniuRZ .